No other product category in the market is more driven by change than fashion. Fashion designers and the fashion industry are obsessed with defining new looks and trends. In making the human body appear as an art form, fashion design lends itself to extremes. However, regardless of design or materials used, the garment must stay on the body.
In order for this invention to work in the described fashion use, some relevant aspects of the female human form require closer examination. The female waist located just above the iliac crest typically has the least circumference on the torso and is often used to support bottoms, skirts, thong-type bikinis, etc. Hip-hugging bottoms, which sit below the iliac crest, are able to stay up because the circumference just above the buttocks and hips is inherently smaller than the circumference at the point below where the buttocks and hips are largest. For women of normal body build with a flat abdomen, the depth of their body just above the buttocks yet below the iliac crest, is typically less than at the maximum depth at the mid-point of the buttocks. However, for women of slim build with negligible hips, the same cannot be said for the relative width of their body at these same points. The front and sides of the waist band on a hip-hugging lower-body garment then provides virtually no support to hold the garment up, other than to provide a means of joining these sections of the waist band section to the section over the buttocks.
The region at the bottom of the lumbar area and top of the sacral area, where the buttocks begins to project outward, are the skin's surfaces next to the gluteus medius, the top of the gluteus maximus, and the recessed or cleft area of the upper portion of the sacrum. These features are less pronounced on a female in a sitting or squatting position. During the action of changing from a standing to sitting position, the skin in these areas experiences virtually no local vertical movement. However, when pushed laterally in one direction, perhaps by ones fingers, the skin in these same areas will undergo a small localized movement. Similarly, other than for small localized movements when pushed laterally, the skin on the mons pubis (also known as mons venus and mons Veneris on females) also undergoes virtually no movement, either when bending or twisting the torso or during breathing. Also, the depth of the body between the mons pubis and the area just above the buttocks remains constant during these body motions. (This can be verified by placing the fingers of one hand on the mons pubis and the fingers of the other hand just above the buttocks, and rotating and bending one's body through a number of motions). When a woman is walking or running, the relative movement between the top of the buttocks must also be considered. The compressed gluteus maximus of the back leg displaces the top of that buttock slightly upward while the outstretch gluteus maximus of the forward leg allows the top of that buttock to displace slightly downward. Thus, except for displacements at the top of the buttocks by leg movement, no significant relative displacement occurs between the mons pubis, the bottom of the pelvis and the perineum, and the area just above the buttocks, as these surfaces are all adjacent to the large pelvic bone. Therefore, an external device which only contacts these areas of the pelvis would also experience only the relative vertical displacement of the two buttocks during leg movements. To minimize any movement of an external device due to the localized movement of the skin, the position of the device could be readily adjusted slightly upward, provided adequate grip is maintained to the skin.
When a woman wearing tight-fitting bottoms sits or squats down, the gluteus maximus muscles and gluteus medius elongate, putting tension on the fabric covering the buttocks. For bottoms made of non-elastomeric fabric, this tension causes the waist band of the bottom to be pulled down on the buttocks. Highly elastomeric fabrics inherently overcome this issue. Thong-type garments are not affected by this issue as they do not provide coverage of the buttocks.
When contemplating ways to grip or hold to skin, it is important to distinguish between the adhesive and non-adhesive methods. Reactive adhesives like cyanoacrylates can achieve a dangerously-strong adhesion to skin. High-tack pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs) hold well to skin, as exhibited in their many medical applications requiring temporary adhesion, but are unnerving to remove and the adhesion rapidly deteriorates when the adhesive becomes contaminated after multiple uses. For the same reasons, clothing that is taped to the body has had little appeal. A device that relies solely on pressure sensitive adhesives or on the spring force a U-shaped spring member to remain on the body is too prone to being inadvertently or deliberately removed by someone or something else, leaving the user perilously exposed. Additionally, the spring force of a U-shaped spring member varies depending on the size of the body being contacted, often leading to excessive force being used to provide retention to the body. The preferred option is then to grip the skin using a non-adhesive method. A surface consisting of a series of miniature suction cups, molded in an elastomeric material, is one possible option. Alternatively, the skin can be gripped by generating a frictional force, a combination of contact force and friction co-efficient. The higher the friction co-efficient, the less contact force is required to achieve the same grip. In everyday exposure, skin can be dry, wet or oily from natural body oils, all of which impact the friction co-efficient. A marvelled occurrence in nature, the gecko's feet has provided the impetus for recent advances in nano-gripping surfaces produced in low-durometer elastomeric materials, which are now considered to provide some of the best non-adhesive gripping surfaces. This technology is used to provide, among other things, temporary grip of items to walls or the dashboard of cars. The most advanced nano-gripping surfaces for robot end effectors (end-of-arm-tooling) can provide an extremely good grip to a multitude of convex surfaces. Under load, these surfaces generate high “shear adhesion” to provide grip.
In the event of a laceration or medical intervention in the body, external pressure is used to restrict the flow of blood. This is typically done with hand pressure, external weights, or external gauze and adhesive tape. Being gravity based, the weights can only provide contact force when directly on top of the patient. Applying hand pressure is effective, but can rapidly become inconsistent and this ties up a first-responder from attending to other urgent needs. To be effective, the adhesive tape holding the gauze down must be under considerable tension on the skin, which then must be unnervingly torn off the skin when the gauze is removed. Therefore, a device to quickly apply a controlled pressure on a laceration, which can then be left unattended, and quickly removed, is desirable.
Viniegra (U.S. Pat. No. 2,534,934), Marbach (U.S. Pat. No. 3,339,208), Axman (U.S. Pat. No. 4,394,781), Leonard et al (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,367,715 and 5,396,662), Crawford II (U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,482), Ruiter et al (U.S. Pat. No. 6,738,988) disclosed open-sided thong-type garments, all with a structure made of resilient spring wire formed in a U-shaped loop, and which are reliant on spring force to remain on the body. While perhaps useful in a stationary mode when tanning, they would all slip on the body during normal body movements and are extremely susceptible to being inadvertently removed. Additionally, all of the prior art based on spring wire designs failed to consider the actual cross-sectional profile of the bottom of the pelvis and the perineum, as it does not have the U-shape which these devices all show. Unsell (U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,657), Davis (U.S. Pat. No. 5,832,535), Osterrath (U.S. Pat. No. 6,173,449) disclosed genital-covering garments which are dependent on adhesive tape to remain on the body, and which would initially remain on the body better than the prior art based on spring wire. Davis recognizes that adhesive tapes are only suitable for single use, in that case for medical procedures. While also susceptible to inadvertent removal, failure of the adhesive tape would render the product useless. Flygstad (U.S. Pat. No. 4,727,585), Tool et al (U.S. Pat. No. 4,783,822), Hung (U.S. Pat. No. 5,035,005) and Woo et al (U.S. Pat. No. 6,611,963) are instructive on ear clamping devices with means to adjust the clamping force within the spring-type construction. They are all ultimately reliant on spring force to remain on the head and inadvertent removal is generally not a concern in that application.
Within the medical prior art, Porter et al (U.S. Pat. No. 8,048,009) disclosed a clamping device for therapeutic applications. Segal et al (U.S. Pat. No. 8,226,587) disclosed extensive variants of a pelvic anchor brace and spinal support which show the device originating in the center of lower back, with bands wrapping only part way around both sides of pelvis. The multitude of disclosed bands are all dependent on spring force to provide retention on the body, whether by spring wire, spring strips or articulating band segments each forced inward by individual springs.
Within other areas of the prior art, a number of non-encircling gripping devices require consideration. Hand-activated remote grabbing devices for changing light bulbs, picking up articles on the ground or for treating thrombosis, such as Barron (U.S. Pat. No. 6,223,628), Buzby et al (U.S. Pat. No. 8,500,180), Ludwig et al (U.S. Pat. No. 8,777,287) and Kovarik et al (U.S. Pat. No. 9,901,245) either have a hinging jaw or jaws that are forced to collapse while being pulled into a restriction. The purpose of the rigid or flexible shafts or tubes are only to house the means of conveyance of the mechanical movement to the distal grabber. The articulate segments of Kovarik et al are specifically designed to not bias in one particular direction when tension is applied to the wire, as that would be undesirable for their application. Foreman (U.S. Pat. No. 6,370,740) disclosed a non-encircling mechanical clamp for cylindrical objects, which is activated by having two rigid circular sections close from a center point through a pushing force and open through a pulling force. Additionally, the contact faces of common C-clamps and other styles of clamps often include self-aligning faces, comprises a ball trapped in a socket that, for deliberate reasons, prevents the clamp face from becoming detached. For the proposed applications of this invention, there is specific merit to have a detachable self-aligning face that will readily realigned during closure, which this invention discloses.
The field of robotics has seen sophisticated advancements in gripper, end effector and end-of-arm-tooling (EOAT) technology, including robotic “hands” having multiple fingers with multiple phalanges controlled by mechanical, servo-electrical or pneumatic means, which has some relevance to this invention. Rovetta et al (U.S. Pat. No. 4,351,553) disclosed a multi-purpose mechanical hand, consisting of three fingers having five rigid phalanges, each which have coil springs at the joints that cause the phalanges to normally spring straight, with gripping elements secured to the distal phalange of each finger. A tensioning cable is fixed to an arm extending inward on the distal phalange, and is slidably supported on a feature extending inward on each of the remaining phalanges, to where it is ultimately secured to an actuating device which applies or releases tension on the cable. A fashion product that passed through the perineum and between the buttocks, based on the concept of one of Rovetta et al's fingers, would clearly be extremely uncomfortable. Furthermore, with the support for the tensioning cable in the middle of each joint and independent springs at either end, these supports would be drawn together, digging in and pinching the skin as tension is applied on the cable. By have the tensioning cable attached on an inner lever arm on the last joint, the torsional movement of the gripper is inherently restricted, limiting its ability to self-align to the object being gripped. Smallridge (U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,646) disclosed another multi-phalange finger design but the tensioning cable is contained within the phalanges themselves and compression springs replace Rovetta et al's coil springs to provide a resilient opening means for the fingers. Dollar et al (U.S. Pat. No. 8,231,158) undertook a comprehensive examination of the prior art and industry advancements in robotic hands and fingers. Their disclosure, and that of Lin et al (U.S. Pat. No. 8,573,663) and later iRobot (U.S. Pat. No. 9,004,559) are all based on fingers with multiple rigid phalanges connected by hinging joints that are separate from the tensioning cable and are particularly not biased in the closing direction. These prior art focus on the issue of compliance within the robotic fingers and disclose alternative means to provide resilience at the hinging joints with the use of elastomeric materials. It is important to consider in these prior art that after tension has been applied on the cable to cause the robotic finger to grip an object, the phalanges and their hinging joints experience compressive forces which are trying to resist the fingers from opening. Such elastomeric joints would have insufficient flexural and compressive strength for the proposed applications in this invention. Robotic grippers comprising pneumatic multi-bellow actuators with integral nano-grip surfaces are widely considered to be the most compliant and versatile grippers now available, but which would also not be suitable for the proposed applications in this invention. McCarthy et al (U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,187) disclose a series of petals each comprising a resilient continuous strip, the thickness of which tapers continuously inward toward the distal ends. Longitudinal tensioning cables, originating both inboard and outboard at the base of each petal, are attached to the distal end of each petal, such that when tension is applied on either, the petals flex inward or outward. Cable guides are provided at limited points along each petal. Their invention is analogous with a fishing rod, which comprises a resilient tapered rod, with fishing line guided in eyelets below the rod to the hand-actuated reel. When a fisherman attempts to excessively reel the hook inward after it has caught on the distal eyelet, the rod bends toward the eyelets. Specific novel features of the invention now being disclosed go beyond the limitations of the “fishing rod” concept of Rovetta et al with its external tensioning cable, and allow the proposed fashion application to be properly addressed. McCarthy et al further disclose an optional hinging distal end of the petal, to which the tensioning cable is attached. The hinging end is positioned in the center with coil springs, and is allowed to travel to stops on either side of the hinge. This is similar to the distal phalange of Rovetta et al, with its external tensioning cable to activate a hinging end, and for the same reasons, would be completely unusable for the proposed fashion application.